Darling it's better, down where it's wetter.
It isn't everyday you wake up, staring at a bus roof while the bus is literally jumping down the street and up a mountain in Honduras. And during those first few seconds of blurriness, you wipe your eyes yawning and thinking: How did I end up here?
"It's going to be a bumpy ride" the pilot politely informed us, even before we had left the ground. Definetly a bad sign. On the half-full airplane heading for Guatemala City I prepared myself for an awful, unbearable ride. How was I going to survive it? There was only one way and one solution - sleeping.
At the airport in Guatemala I was waved through customs without having to scan my 19.4 kg bag and out in the arrival "hall" (which basically was out on the street) I found my guy from Los Volcanes. Five minutes in the car and we drove through some gates with an armed guard and just a bit further down the road was the hostel. I went out to buy water and heard a buzzing over my head. Every building was surrounded by high, thick concrete walls with barbed wire buzzing at the top. It was electrified. What could be the reason for all these safety actions? I got my water and hurried back to the hostel.
The day after I got a shuttle from the airport taking me and a new found friend all the way to a hostels door in Antigua. We shared a private room for the night and spent the day walking around the city, shopping at the market and drinking coffee in the Parque Central. In the evening we made omelette (though since I was in charge of it, it turned out more like scrambled eggs) and planned our travels. The following day she left for Rio Dulce while I hiked up one of the nearby volcanoes, Pacaya.
Didn't get very impressed. The hike was really easy compared to the ones in Nicaragfua and the lava (that you were supposed to be able to poke with a stick) hadn't been there for three years. But we had a good group and a nice time barbecuing marshmallows. And somehow I ended up being the guides' translator.
I liked Antigua, already after the first day. Maybe not as a backpacker but I could see myself living there. And the feeling just got stronger when I found my first real kickboxing club in five months.
I couldn't leave before I had trained with them, leading me to spend one day extra in Antigua. And the day before my bus to Honduras I had, once again, changed my travel route.
4 am is an awful time to catch a bus. Especially when it is a minibus with no support for your head. Leaving sleeping, not impossible, but seriously uncomfortable. I shared the bus with one american, one canadian, two brittish and seven japanese. After careful consideration I decided to hook up with the brittish girls and we spent the day together at Copan. We did the most important stuff, visited the ruins and tried all three of the local beer brands.
The one thing Antigua was lacking was street food, a thing Copan turned out to have lots of. I challenged my taste buds with some tacos leaving my lips stinging, nose running and mouth burning. But not to worry people! Nothing as bad that a fresh smoothie couldn't set straight.
Around nine o'clock the small town was getting ready for the evening. People, all dressed up, was standing on the main square waiting for the event of evening to begin. There were little girls in princess dresses everywhere. We,on the other hand, were getting ready for bed.
The alarm went of at 5 am, another awful time for catching a bus. (But still better than the hour when the roosters started challenging each others in who could cuckoo the loudest..) We packed our things and headed for the bus to take us to La Ceiba.
So here we are, on an insanely bumpy busride, sliding on the seats from side to side. Eating a "bread" (which was supersweet with cinnamon and raisins, not something I would ever call bread after the hours I've spent baking, let's just call it a cake. In a bread form and consistency) imagining myself it will absorb all the fluids in my stomache and make me not needing to pee.
Still yawning after my nap I am now very aware of where I am and where I am going. Utila. It is time to discover a new world. The world under the sea.